Winning Ways to Keep Blog Readers Up on Industry Trends

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Staying up to date in an industry that’s constantly shifting isn’t easy, but being aware of changes as they happen can keep you ahead of the The Top Trends Hot New Ideas Latest Fads Fashion Ideas Innovatiocurve, according to Yael Grauer of verticalreponse.com.   And, even more important to us business blog content writers, our readers, whether or not they’re inclined towards the “trendy”, like to feel they’re keeping up with the trends.

Grauer offers ten suggestions to business owners and professionals who want to stay abreast of trends in their fields, including subscribing to trade journals and consumer magazines, scouring websites, blogs, and newspapers, and talking to colleagues and customers.

What I’ve learned over the years of helping clients in different industries create content, is that customers expect their service and product providers to do all the work for them, keeping them up-to-date by condensing all that website/newspaper/magazine/trade journal wisdom into bite-sized pieces and, on top of that, putting all that information into perspective.

“Museums curate works of art. We digital marketers curate blog posts,” says Kevan Lee of buffersocial.com.  “We’re all seeking only the best material to pass along to our patrons, customers, fans, or followers.” Why? According to Lee, “People love being told what’s good to read or essential to see.”

Content curation is very different, points out John Tann on Hootsuite.com. It doesn’t include creating new content, he explains, but does include discovering, compiling, and sharing existing content with online followers.  That allows you, he adds, to provide extra value to your brand’s audience and customers.

As a business blogwriting trainer, I think some of the most valuable content consists of a combination of curation and marketing.  I encourage freelance content writers and business owners alike to gather OPW (Other People’s Wisdom) and share that with their readers, but then to comment on that material and relate it to their own topic.

Ideally, I explain to business owners, your content keeps your readers savvy about what’s trending, while at the same time establishing you as a thought leader in your field!

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Don’t Let Your Blog Readers Get the Wrong Idea

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Undo Red Button Correct Fix Go Back Revise Mistake Error“Sometimes, our very human fears and insecurities cause us to talk about ourselves in ways that don’t reflect the truth of who we are. We choose language that hides our strength…and this gives other people the wrong impression of us,” writes Annika Martins in postivelypositive.com.

Business blogging is one way we have of “talking about ourselves”.  And, whether it’s the business owner or professional practitioner herself doing the writing, or whether we professional blog content writers have been hired to do the job for them, we need to make sure we ”talk” in ways that give readers the right impression.

That’s because impressions matter, and, even more important, they last. I read an interesting anecdote about Abe Lincoln that illustrates the point. According to biographer Carl Sandburg, Lincoln bet a gambler that he could lift a barrel of whiskey off the floor and hold it up while he took a drink out of the bunghole. Lincoln actually did that, winning the bet.  But decades later, Stephen Douglas, while debating Lincoln, implied that Abe had a serious drinking problem!

Does this sort of thing happen today? Well, duh! “Anyone can post a bad review online and hurt your business,” observes the coauthor of the book Niche Dominance. “Business owners need to be proactive in developing their online reputation,” he advises.

There is little that you can do to get a negative online review removed, advises Ashley Bennett of instantshift. Accept it, she says, for what it is and then focus on the positive aspects of your business, putting a spotlight on your positive achievements online to displace the negative reviews. This can take a while, but start creating more listings that talk about new products, services, news, discounts, and partnerships. You can do this via social media posts, blog posts, or even press releases.

Every feedback, whether negative or positive, comes from somewhere, says Donald Latumahina of lifeoptimizer.org. Something you said or did made the person react this way. Is there any truth behind it, and would this be an alternate perspective you missed out originally? Is it something you should look into?

When I’m helping business owners and professional practitioners craft their messages, damage control can become a very real issue. As a corporate blogging trainer, I know how crucial it is for them to convey to their customers, as well as to the online searchers who are their prospects, the kind of message that will alleviate mistrust and create confidence. Blog posts, I believe, are especially valuable tools when it comes to “impression” challenges.  Blog content is current, talking about “now”, not “then”. Plus, customers’ customers’ concerns and fears are being dealt with out in the open, “in front of other people”. That gives the remediation more weight with readers.

Don’t let blog readers get the wrong idea about you or your company or practice.  Not for long, anyway!

 

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Tell How You Tripped at the Academy Awards

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Is your brand real enough for the next wave of consumers? asks Jamie Gutfreund in  Forbes. “Gen Zs  consider Child falling down the stairstaking risks an important part of life and mistakes as badges of honor.” Zs are savvy consumers, Gutfreund adds, preferring to see “real” people to celebrities in campaigns.  To them, failure builds character, and they have little interest in content that promises perfection.

Interesting. As a corporate blogging trainer, I’ve been preaching to Indianapolis content writers that engaging readers and creating feelings of empathy and admiration for their business owner and professional practitioner clients may be a matter of writing about how those owners overcame the effects of their own mistakes.

No matter what generation of reader you’re targeting, I explain, real life conflicts are riches to be mined. Often, however, our business owner and practitioner clients are so close to the subject matter of their own past and present business battles, they can’t see how valuable those “failures” can prove to be. That’s where the “outside eye” of a professional blog writer becomes especially valuable.

“One thing you will notice about successful people, especially people with an entrepreneurial streak, is that they welcome detours and failures as a natural part of the journey they are on,” observes author Ekaterina Walter. Mistakes will not end your business. But will surface new opportunities, adds Meridith Valiando Rojas, CEO of Digitour Media.

“Who are You? Readers like to know about the author. It makes your writing more interesting because it adds context,” says K. Stone of lifehack.org. in advising writers to brand their blogs for success.

Good branding and good writing – they’re both about being real.  So, go ahead, tell how you (or your business owner or professional practitioner client) tripped at the Academy Awards!

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Blog a Time Traveler’s Guide to Your Business

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RIn ancient Greece, I learned by reading the “Time Travelers Guide to Table Manners” in Mental Floss Magazine, napkins hadn’t been invented yet, so you wiped your greasy hands with a piece of bread, then threw the bread on the floor for the dogs. In ancient Rome, by contrast, people ate with their hands, but always kept their pinkie and ring fingers clean.

Fascinating tidbits of information such as these can help content writers come up with ideas for business blogs. I can see the two specific examples above being used in a vet’s blog, a blog about pet food, a blog about keeping different kinds of floors clean, even a blog about pinkie rings. Trivia can be turned into idea triggers to help practitioners and business owners blog about the products they sell, about their skills and particular beliefs.

Today, though, I want to focus on using the time traveler template in business blog content. What’s the purpose of talking about the way things used to be done in a particular industry or profession?

  • Business owners and practitioners come across as knowledgeable and committed.
  • Readers (read potential buyers) are moved to take advantage of all the new technology and expertise now available to them.
  • The “I never knew that!” response is how readers become engaged by the information.

Blogging about the history of your own (or your client’s) company can have a humanizing effect. Learning how any business owner or professional practitioner overcame adversity tens to  engender feelings of empathy and admiration.

But even reaching back to the history of  the entire industry or profession is a valuable technique when writing about any type of business or practice. That’s because, in every industry and every profession, things are not the same as they used to be.  Helping readers understand how to get the maximum benefit out of today’s version of products and services is the point.

What can you include in a time traveler’s guide to YOUR industry or profession?

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Say It For You Magazine Challenge Revived – Part 2

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This week I’m offering a challenge to all SIFY readers to come up with blog post ideas out of a single magazine of their choice. Choose articles that trigger ideas for you to blog about your business or practice – what you sell, what you know, what you believe, and what you know how to do. I’m using one of my favorite sources of interesting information:  Mental Floss.  (If you’ve never been exposed to this bi-monthly publication, I highly recommend you try it – you’ll be hooked for sure!)Mental Floss magazine-cover-copy

In this month’s issue of Mental Floss, for example, there’s a whole page of interesting historical tidbits about seating. Did you know, for example, that:

  • Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair back in 1775, by adding rollers from window sash pulleys to make a spinning seat. (The Declaration of Independence was signed by Jefferson while sitting in that chair!)
  • William McKinney designed a chair for the White House by having persons of varying sized sit in snowbanks, then transferring the curves left behind to the drawing board.
  • President Kennedy had such a bad back, his doctor prescribed a rocking chair.  Kennedy gifted rocking chairs to other heads of state to his valet, and the chair became popular.
  • Before the 16th century, churches had no seats. By the early 1800s, some British parishes installed pews and then rented them out.

In this case, seating is the topic “thread” that unifies all the tidbits from different periods of history. This is very much like the “letimotifs” used in blog content writing. In corporate blogging training sessions, I teach that effective blog posts are centered around key themes, just like the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony.
What blog writers might use this particular set of facts about seating as a jumping-off point to discuss their business or practice?  The obvious answers are furniture stores and home decorators. But how about a chiropractor (using the material about rocking chairs for Kennedy)? On the question of renting out the pews, I can see that tying in with a discussion about renting versus owning (life insurance agents? Realtors?).

I know just how challenging it can be to sustain the discipline and “the faith” needed for long term business blogging success. Ideas for blog posts, on the other hand? That’s the easy part.  Just pick up a popular magazine– and learn!

 

 

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